Wild Forces: A Friends to Lovers Romance (O-Town Book 2) by Karen Renee (summer reads .TXT) 📕

door. I appreciate your concern, but I’m not moving unless it’s absolutely necessary. Right now, he hasn’t been able to post bail, so it’s not an issue.”

“Yet,” he muttered.

“Right. But, I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.”

“That restraining order’s just a piece of paper, you know.”

“No way I wouldn’t know, seeing as Kaylee said the very same thing, and her father dropped by to reiterate it.”

Our conversation halted when Gabe pulled into the Waffle House parking lot.

While Gabe parked, I noticed a stocky man with bright blue eyes stood at the door with a short, dark-haired woman at his side. His leather vest had several patches on the front, but the one which read ‘Vamp’ grabbed my attention. They were a striking couple.

I hopped out of the truck, and Gabe waited for me at the bumper. “You need to stay safe, Cass.”

“I know, Dad.”

He slugged me on the bicep. “Shut up, smartass.”

Ten minutes later we had placed our orders with our waitress, and Rainey gave me an assessing look.

“How are you two friends, anyway?” she asked.

Gabe spoke before I could. “She was the Teaching Assistant in a music appreciation course I took. I asked her to tutor me, she called me on my b.s. and I told her it was the start of a beautiful friendship.”

I shook my head and put my orange juice down. “Inaccurate, mister,” I widened my eyes at Rainey and tilted my head toward Gabe, “First words he said to me were, ‘I’m an asshole.’ Verbatim. I remember because I wanted to ask if he was related to Dennis Leary, but that would’ve been rude.”

Rainey laughed. “How would that have been rude? I mean a guy walks up and immediately says he’s an asshole... that’s rude. And Gabe, why would you do that?”

Gabe shot a disappointed look at me. “Why do you always have to tell the truth, Daughtry?”

I smiled and shrugged.

He sipped some coffee before he said, “Well, I did that because I was being one. Some buddies made a lame bet with me that I couldn’t get her to tutor me and get in her pants.”

Rainey gasped. “Oh my God! Why would you do that? I’ve met your father, he raised you better than that!”

Gabe looked ashamed, so I let him off the hook. “Well, the truth is he never would’ve convinced me he needed tutoring. Pretty sure I told him his paper about ‘Blue Rondo ala Turk’ made him worthy of giving the lecture about rondos instead of Professor Wood.”

His brother Vamp laughed. “No doubt about that. Pop freaking loves Brubeck. So, is that what sparked your friendship? Gabe’s appreciation of West Coast jazz?”

I shrugged. “Not exactly. I had admired his musical knowledge before that, but his honesty about the bet put him in a new light.”

Rainey pointed a finger at Gabe. “You need to thank your lucky stars this girl doesn’t hold that against you, Gabe. Because seriously, that is whacked.”

The server showed up with our plates of food, so Gabe didn’t respond.

Everyone had ordered breakfast food except me. For some reason, when we stepped inside, I had a hankering for lunch food instead of waffles or eggs.

As I doctored my Texas Chicken Melt, Gabe said, “You’ll have to excuse Cassandra. She’s already been to yoga at seven-damn-thirty this morning, and is clearly ahead of the rest of us schedule-wise.”

I shot a mock dirty look his way. “Shut up, Sullivan. I just didn’t feel like a waffle at this point. Sue me.”

Vamp paused the cutting of his peanut butter waffle to ask, “You carrying a weapon with you to early morning yoga?”

I looked to Gabe, who was cutting his omelet as though he might be graded on it.

“Did you tell them about my troubles?”

Gabe finally looked at me. “Yeah, I did. Told him and my brother’s buddy, Clint. You know Cecilia was attacked a few weeks back. Can’t be too careful, Cassie.”

I turned back to Vamp. “No, I’m not carrying a weapon with me, but he’s still in jail, and I have a—”

“Restraining order, Gabe mentioned it. And just to say, you probably won’t be notified the moment that jackass gets bailed out and leaves jail. A piece of paper isn’t going to do anything for you if he gets aggressive.”

I smiled. “I’m not opening the door to him again.”

“He breaks in, you got problems,” Vamp said.

“I know you’re an outlaw biker and stuff, but Asher isn’t going to break into my apartment.”

“Tell that to Andrea,” Vamp muttered.

Rainey shook her head. “Not to contradict you, babe, but Andrea’s problems stemmed from someone far worse than a stalker.”

“I don’t know who Andrea is, but I don’t have a stalker. He simply needs to move on, and maybe get some anger management counseling or something.”

Vamp’s eyes were a bright shade of blue, but not nearly as vibrant as Gabe’s. Still,  the way he was staring at me made me feel queasy. He looked to Gabe and then to me.

“Did you know he was living in that apartment?”

“No, but apparently Kaylee saw him all the time. I guess our schedules were just different.”

He looked at Gabe. “You check if there’s a Ring camera?”

Gabe’s chin lifted a touch. “No, but I’ll check that when I drop her off.”

“Do that. This shit doesn’t make sense.”

I looked at Rainey. “Are they always like this?”

She shrugged. “They’re protective. It’s annoying, but I’ve found it’s best to roll with it.”

The hardness in Vamp’s voice forced me to look at him. “It’s one thing not to know an ex has turned psycho. It’s another thing to ignore the threat that’s right across from where you live. That would just be stupid, and Gabe’s told me you’re the smartest woman he knows, so don’t get stupid now.”

“All right, all right. Message received.”

Gabe

CASSIE’S DISDAIN FOR Vamp lecturing her during breakfast couldn’t be missed, but on the way home something else seemed to be bothering her.

“You’re awful quiet over there, Cassie.”

“Yeah,” she sighed. “Something... I don’t know. I think that chicken